


Quick Turn Around

by dawnstone



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Being Lost, First Meetings, Gen, Humor, grumpy Abelas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 06:42:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26348788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dawnstone/pseuds/dawnstone
Summary: Abelas wakes to an intruder in the temple. Luckily, she is agreeable.
Relationships: Abelas & Merrill
Comments: 18
Kudos: 22
Collections: Black Emporium 2020





	Quick Turn Around

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Crisis_Project](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crisis_Project/gifts).



Deep in the heart of the remains of Mythal’s greatest temple, Abelas woke from uthenera. An intruder had entered the grounds, and he could feel their presence in the last place they should be, the sanctuary of the Well.

He and his Sentinels slept with their arms and armor at hand, and in moments they had surrounded the room. If this fool had desecrated the Vir’Abelesan, they would pay with their life.

Abelas advanced into the chamber, towards the Well, which was set high on a dais and surrounded by eluvians.

A lone figure stood there, a woman. One of the short-lived shadow children of their kind who called themselves Dalish, bearing the crude replica of vallaslin they often wore. Somehow, she’d woken one of the eluvians.

She seemed engrossed in a parchment she’d taken from her belt, and was making notations on it with charcoal. An explorer then, seeking mysteries and possibly treasure. Nothing here belonged to her, however.

Abelas signaled for the other Sentinels to hold position, and entered the sanctuary to confront her. Even if she meant no harm, this was not a place anyone was meant to enter without doing the proper rituals and cleansing.

“If you leave the way you came and do not return, shemlen, I will ignore your trespassing,” he said.

The woman looked up at him, in surprise, and then shock. “Oh, oh, what did you just call me? How dare you!”

They never did like being reminded they were mortals now. “I called you what I would call any uninvited guest of your kind. I’d prefer not to shed blood in this sanctuary, however.”

“Who are you?” She seemed to see him clearly now, his height, his robes, his vallaslin.

“You may call me Abelas. This is Mythal’s Temple, and you are an intruder here.”

“Oh! Oh my stars. Six others. What happened to them?” she said, seeing the remains of the other eluvians in the sanctuary.

Abelas frowned in irritation. “The fall of our empire happened. Why do you ask?”

“Well you see, ah, Abelas, I seem to be lost. I’ve been trying to find my way back to my eluvian, but the last mirror I entered locked me out from passing the other way. I’ve been walking for days.” The woman gave him a mournful look.

He brushed her off. “This is none of my concern. You may either travel back the way you came, or we will escort you to the edge of our influence. There are others of your kind not far from here.”

This only seemed to make her more curious. “So I suppose you aren’t going to let me look around. Hmm. What clan, if I might ask?”

Sighing, he shook his head at her. “I do not trouble myself with such fleeting things. My only duty is to guard the Vir’Abelasan.”

Her eyes slid back to the Well. “You’re protecting that pool there? I sense powerful magic, it must be worth guarding. So you work for Mythal?” she asked.

He chuckled, which was something he was unaccustomed to. “I do not work for her, child. I live for her.”

“Understood. Well then, if I may be so bold. You seem to have an understanding of the eluvians and the paths beyond. If I go back the way I came, could you perhaps direct me to another path that might get me close to um, Sundermount. You’d probably know that place if you’re as old as I think.”

She approached him, and showed him her parchment. It was a map that showed a spider’s web of paths and had marks for operational and broken mirrors.

“You’re asking me for directions?”

“Well, yes.”

“And you promise not to return?”

The woman shrugged at him. “As long as another mirror doesn’t pop out here. I can’t always see what’s on the other side.”

“A fair argument. Very well.” He took her charcoal and made some marks on the map from what he remembered when the world was whole, and Fen’Harel hadn’t cocked everything up. “If the paths are intact you should be able to return there with ease,” he said.

The woman gave him a short curtsy. “Thank you, Abelas. I will do my best not to trouble you again. My name is Merrill, by the way. If you should ever find yourself away from here, and are in need of help, I can be found in a place called Kirkwall.”

He nodded sternly. “I doubt that will ever be the case, but I will keep your offer in mind.”

Merrill grinned at him, and turned to pass back through the glowing mirror.


End file.
